Upstatement

An absolute highlight of the year was getting to join the Mozilla Builders team for Demo Day 2024. Mozilla Builders Accelerator Program funds and supports projects contributing to an open-source AI ecosystem. The 2024 Demo Day Event was the culmination of the first cohort of accelerator projects, bringing together a community of makers looking to this work as a vision of the the future potential of open-source AI. The event was devised as a science fair, featuring the 14 cohort projects and 6 internal Mozilla projects and coincided with the launch of the new brand and website by Upstatement (Scott Dasse and Nathan Hass). Work included a 90-page publication, posters for every project, environmental and digital graphics for the event space, all in 8 weeks. Full project at https://lnkd.in/g9BBrzjT Deepest appreciation to the most incredible team: Monica Chambers Nathaniel Brewster Benton Persons Mary Richerson

Now that the dust has settled and all invoices have been paid, I can celebrate the success of the inaugural Mozilla Builders Demo Day that took place in SF on Dec. 6th. This event was a culmination of 6 months of work, and if I'm being honest, might be the thing I am most proud of in my career. I started working on this with almost zero experience planning live events. But you can do anything with the right team by your side! Mozilla Builders Demo Day was not your typical corporate demo day. It was a celebration of community, collaboration, and the power of people who are building for the public good. The day began with pitches from our incredible Accelerator cohort. Under the theme of Local AI, we had a diverse group of projects built by innovators from across the world — including the young team from Koel Labs who are helping foreign speakers with language pronunciation, the Ente team who are creating an open-source and privacy-minded alternative to Google and Apple Photos, and the Ersilia team who are building the first AI-powered, open-source tool to speed up and reduce costs of developing new antimicrobial drugs in the Global South. As one attendee put it: "Real tech, real practitioners, demonstrable social good." In the afternoon, the event transformed into an interactive science fair. Attendees explored 20+ open-source AI projects, demoing the tech and engaging in deep conversations with the builders. It was incredibly fulfilling to look around and see so many moments of authentic connection happening around the space. I want to thank the amazing people I worked with to bring this event to life and for trusting in me to pull it off! I especially want to thank Mary Richerson Monica Chambers Nathaniel Brewster Oksana Salamaszek Mark Toubman Liv Erickson Imo Udom Kenya Friend-Daniel Matt Cool Jen Boscacci Stephen Hood Ricky Bloxsom and the Upstatement team. You can learn more about the event and the incredible teams that presented their work here: https://lnkd.in/edYciCGF

When there’s this much good news coming out of the Harvard Innovation Labs — and a talented communications team to amplify it — it makes my job really easy and fun! So lucky we got to welcome (back) Dan Pinnolis and Lyvia Chapman to complete our team this year and join me, Alex Parks, and Isabel Feinstein in telling the i-lab story in new ways on our website (thanks Upstatement!), in the media, on our social feeds, and in our physical space. You each bring so much to the table, personally and professionally, and I’m excited for what 2025 has in store for our team and innovation at Harvard!

Incredibly proud of this work — we created a vision, brand, brand identity, a website, a zine, and environmental assets for a demo day — in six months! WTF. None of the Mozilla Builders work would be possible without the trust, guidance, and perspective of Monica Chambers. And the partnership of Upstatement (Nathan Hass & Scott Dasse) and Ricky Bloxsom. Together, we created something that looks incredible and is more memorable, sophisticated, and authentic than any other work in the AI community I've seen. Thank you. And thanks to the indomitable Mary Richerson and Benton Persons for bringing the brand to life in such a ridiculously world-class way during Demo Day. (More pics of that...soon.) If you're in the open-source AI space and making something cool and/or have a perspective you think others should hear, reach out. https://lnkd.in/eqPpYa-V

Sometimes people wonder where we got the name Upstatement. Hopefully this clears it up.

Anyone work on a product and interested in a new way to manage their data that takes just a few 🤏 lines of code to get set up and actually looks 🌸 nice? A small team of us at Upstatement have been working on a new tool called Baselayer that's an approachable window 🪟 into your product's data. If this piques your interest, read more about why we built it and help us shape the product by being an early user ✨ Learn more @ baselayer.app

Join the alpha for Upstatement’s new product—Baselayer makes time for teams to focus on innovation, and we want your feedback.

Recently, our product team designed a tool that liberates engineers and accelerates businesses. Join our Baselayer alpha and change the way your team collaborates on product data. We want your feedback!

Matter Intelligence developed technology that lets us see our world in extreme new detail. See what they've found (and check out the website + brand identity we developed).

We’re looking for a couple of design roles at Upstatement! Design Director: https://lnkd.in/ekBWNwPA Designer: https://lnkd.in/e-HR7Ydb